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CONCEPT NOTE FOR THE AFRICAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
FORUM
1.0
Introduction
The NEPAD Agency in collaboration with its partners IFAD, CTA and UNECA will organize
the African Rural Development Forum (ARDF) within the context of the Rural Futures
Programme. The theme of the Forum is “Taking Forward the Rural Development Agenda
in Africa”. The need to achieve sustainable rural development and agricultural
transformation in Africa to deal with high population growth, growing demand for food and
escalating food prices, climate change, excessive supply of youth labour, regional food
insecurity, existing agriculture yield gap, and unfavourable rural-urban linkages, will be the
main focus of the Forum. This will include examining the high potential that exists in Africa
due to its abundant natural resources in particular land, water, climate, rural and youthful
labour force, and the potential that smallholder farmers and women can play in rural
development. There are many challenges facing rural development in Africa. Small-scale
farmers and rural populations face a plethora of production and market constraints, which
adversely affect their welfare and employment opportunities as well as serious lack public
services in rural areas.
Tackling inequality and enabling rural men and women to reach their full potential require a
significant change in the way rural development has been implemented in Africa to focus
more on accelerated economic growth with environmental sustainability, and strengthening
livelihood opportunities and employment creation in particular for the youth. Thus, the main
challenge for African policy makers is addressing domestic imbalances and injustices, while
at the same time maintaining local and global competitiveness. Addressing these challenges
will require long term vision, a reconnect of the sector with local and global issues and a
strategic approach. What sort of policy frameworks are required to drive the rural
development agenda in Africa?
1.1
The Rural Futures Program
The overarching purpose of the Rural Futures Program, which was launched by the NEPAD
Agency in 2010, is to facilitate new thinking and broad agreement with respect to the vision,
strategies and plans for rural economic development and the reduction of rural poverty and
inequality. The Program is based on the understanding that the rural economy including
agriculture is a vital and central component for structural change. It encompasses a broader
understanding of the inter-relationships between economic, environmental and political
factors for advancing rural transformation and takes into account the roles of different
stakeholders working in a transparent and collective manner.
The goal of the Rural Futures program encompasses accelerated and diversified economic
growth in rural areas including an expansion of employment and rural livelihood
opportunities, an enhanced pace of reduction in rural poverty and improved environmental
sustainability. The program has different categories of activities aligned to the identified
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objectives of knowledge generation and sharing, facilitating dialogue on policy and
institutional innovations, investments in innovative projects and building partnerships. The
Rural Futures program will initially focus on five entry points that include rural and territorial
planning, policy and intervention; infrastructure for rural transformation; strengthening the
productive sectors in rural areas and job creation; equitable access to resources and
services and sustainable natural resource management and climate change.
1.2
Purpose for the organization of the African Rural Development Forum (ARDF)
The African Rural Development Forum will seek to provide an opportunity to share lessons
within Africa and to learn lessons from other countries where focussed efforts in support of
rural transformation have been put in place. The Forum will share best practices of policy
coordination across different sectors and agencies as well as between different levels of
government with the aim of developing more effective and efficient means of rural service
provision, which meets the particular needs for rural areas. The forum will also examine the
role of agricultural growth as a driver of the diversification process and diversification of the
rural economy beyond agriculture as a key feature of rural transformation. It will seek to
benefit from the experience of IFAD in this regard, especially at the national level. The ARDF
will establish strategic partnerships between NPCA and various rural development
stakeholders towards advocacy and policy dialogue on rural transformation in Africa aimed
at improving the livelihoods of poor rural people in all African countries.
1.3
Rationale
Sub-Saharan Africa faces major challenges related to its incipient economic diversification
and on-going demographic transition. However, it has an unprecedented opportunity for
transformation and sustained growth. Until the onset of the global economic crisis, economic
growth had averaged 5% for a decade. Even though growth declined as a consequence of
the global financial crisis, it rebounded in 2010 thanks to prudent macroeconomic policies
and financial support from multilateral agencies. Africa’s private sector is increasingly
attracting investment, with much of the funding coming from domestic banks and investors.
The sector is also creating an emerging African middle class of hundreds of millions of
consumers and prospects for new markets.
It is expected that the ARDF will contribute to increased awareness and knowledge of
African stakeholders as well as the international community on key issues affecting rural
development in Africa, the establishment of strong partnerships on rural development based
on common understanding and interests, sharing of experiences on best practices, and
implementation of innovative approaches in rural transformation. The Forum is also
expected to result in an African consensus on the role of the rural sector in the continent’s
economic and social transformation, increased alignment and harmonisation of policy and
practice, better understanding of synergies and trade-offs as well as an integrated view of
development and the environment by all stakeholders.
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1.4
Objectives of the ARDF
The strategic objective of the first African Rural Development Forum (ARDF) are to (1)
promote a collaborative agenda focused on the key challenges and renewed opportunities in
rural development in African countries and (2) mobilise a strong political leadership and a
pro-poor and integrated approach to rural development with effective policies and actions for
successful rural transformation.
The specific objectives of the Forum are to:

Contribute to raising awareness about existing and emerging challenges in rural
development in Africa;

Promote the exchange of information and best practices on rural development from
within Africa and from various parts of the world;

Provide a platform to debate on various perspectives on policy options and strategic
thinking and action on rural development
in Africa with a view to up-scaling or
replicating best practices; and

Help to forge strategic partnerships for joint implementation of suitable flagship
projects and programs for rural development in Africa.
1.5
Expected Outputs
The following are the expected outputs from the Forum:

A consolidated report and proposed action roadmap focusing on the multi-sectorial
approach for advancing rural transformation across Africa;

A policy brief on tools and best practices in rural transformation that will go through the
necessary AU decision-making processes to ensure endorsement by the Governments
and the Ministers responsible;

Learning and Knowledge platform to promote and strengthen learning partnerships
among key regional and national organizations involved in rural development launched;

Areas for further in-depth research and analytical work identified; and

Collaborative flagship projects including those on expanding rural job opportunities,
especially for young people, and the necessary resource mobilization strategies
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1.6
Expected Outcomes
The occasion of the Rural Development Forum will launch a number of collaborative flagship
projects including those on expanding rural job opportunities, especially for young people,
and the necessary resource mobilization strategies which relate directly to the rural
development agenda. It will also result in:


Awareness for the prioritization of rural development in economic planning and financing
enhanced; and
Substantive national political commitment toward the adoption of pro-rural development
strategies and policies.
1.7
Thematic Focus Areas
The major theme of the Forum will be to assess the state of affairs of rural development in
African countries, including challenges and opportunities, policies, and best practices. It will
attempt to answer the following questions:

Why rural development is a central agenda for the continent?

What makes rural development work or succeed within a green context?

What are the capacity and knowledge systems needs for effective rural
development?
Sub-themes for the Forum will include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
2.0
Political Economy of Rural Transformation
Territorial Development and multi-sectorality
Livelihood, Employment and Job creation
Rural Infrastructure development
Environnemental Management and Sustainability
Organizational Arrangements
The preparation of the African Rural Development Forum will be undertaken by an
Organizing Committee involving a Core Task Team drawn from NPCA, IFAD, UNECA and
CTA in collaboration with a Technical Committee comprising of above organizations, other
partners (FAO, AFD, ILO, UNDP and COMSEC) and individual resource persons. A
conference organizer and facilitator will be identified.
4|Page
www.nepad.org
info@nepad.org
Tel: +27 (0) 11 256 3600
Fax: +27 (0) 11 206 3762
P.O. Box 1234
Halfway House 1685
Midrand, Johannesburg
South Africa
2.1
Communicating the ARDF
A communication strategy for rural transformation initiatives and best practices will be a
major output of the Forum. A special website will be launched/developed and dedicated to
the Forum both at the preparatory stages and post-Forum follow up activities, as well as
making use of the existing websites of the three partners-UNECA, IFAD and CTA to post
papers and outcomes of the Forum. There will be competition awards to encourage and
promote production and sharing of best practices in terms of articles on rural transformation
and most appropriate case studies on the ground. Mechanisms to monitor the impact of rural
transformation initiatives will be developed and shared. Policy briefs on important lessons
and experiences will be encouraged. A Rural Future Newsletter is on the cards. NPCA will
use its access to Ministerial and AU forums to report and communicate policy messages on
rural transformation.
2.2
Participants to the ARDF
The target group for the ADRF will be drawn from beneficiaries of rural development
programs at the community level, policy makers and rural development practitioners from
different stakeholder levels who will be expected to share their experiences and ensure
follow up after the Forum. The participating countries and individuals will include a crosssection of all Africa’s regions to give a balanced overview of rural transformation practices
and experiences. The selection will be done in consultation with RECs and other partners
especially those at country level. Priority will be given in the list to include those countries
that have made successes in rural development, as well as those lagging behind and
needing to learn from best practices. African and global expertise, development agencies,
governments, universities, farmers and private sector will also be the target group for the
Forum.
Date and Venue for the Forum
The meeting dates are 2-4 May 2013 in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.
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